Mom bathing with 2-month-old on lap wakes to find baby face down in tub, Utah cops say

A mom was arrested after she took her 2½-month-old into the bath with her and the infant died, deputies in Utah said.

The mom, who deputies said admitted to “a history of falling asleep in the bath for hours,” put the baby on her lap in the tub and was later awakened by an older child worried about the infant “being face down” in the water, the Utah County Sheriff’s Office said in a March 10 news release posted on Facebook.

First responders “attempted (life) saving care” on the 2½-month-old at the Eagle Mountain home, “but after extensive effort,” the baby was pronounced dead, deputies said.

The mom was arrested on suspicion of negligent homicide, per the release.

The mom told detectives that she drank “a large amount of alcohol” the evening of March 6, “and then decided to take a bath in the late hours of the night,” deputies said.

She took the infant with her, at first putting the baby in a bouncy chair by the tub, deputies said.

Then, she told detectives, she put the baby on her lap, “just above the water line,” according to deputies.

An older child woke her up about two hours later, “concerned about the (baby) being face down in the bath water and partially under (the mom’s) knee,” deputies said.

The baby wasn’t breathing, deputies said.

The mom picked up the baby while the older child ran to other family members for help, according to deputies.

Eagle Mountain is about a 40-mile drive south from Salt Lake City.

Sara Schilling covers real-time news for McClatchy. She is a graduate of Seattle Pacific University, where she studied communications and sociology. Previously, she reported for newspapers including the Tri-City Herald and The (Tacoma) News Tribune.